Thursday, 30 June 2016

The stoning of the President's convoy last night, in the Ashanti Region, by villagers near Ejisu, should be thoroughly investigated by the security agencies, and all those involved in organising it swiftly prosecuted and jailed.

Such barbaric acts should not be countenanced in our democracy under any circumstances.

Where will such egregious violence directed at the President of the Republic of Ghana lead to? It must be condemned in the strongest possible terms by all the political parties in Ghana.

Local and international media reports of such incidents taking place in parts of Ghana, create unnecessary tension in our country, and discourage investors planning to invest in our national economy.

Who will create the hundreds of thousands of jobs that the younger generation so desperately needs, if entrepreneurs from Ghana and elsewhere in the world don't invest in businesses here - because in their view the country has become unstable?

Are politicians going to be attacked everywhere they go in Ghana because people in the areas they visit are dissatisfied with their policies? Will that not lead to a state of anarchy in our homeland Ghana?

We must not forget that whiles the Constitution guarantees our fundame;ntal human rights as citizens of Ghana, all of us also have a responsibility to be law-abiding citizens, at all material times.

If a similar incident had occurred in the U.S., the U.S. Secret Service would have reacted swiftly, and opened fire with their weapons at the people involved in the stone throwing, whiles speeding away from the scene of the incident to take the president to a safer area they had control over.

In an age of global terrorism, those protecting the leaders of nations around the world, who have to make split-second decisions in such instances, cannot afford to wait to find out whether or not such stone-throwing in a darkened area at night, is a diversionary tactic in an assassination attempt on the leaders they are protecting.

They will more likely than not resort to maximum and overwhelming force to ensure the safety of those they are trained to protect - because when faced with such a situation, they have to assume that a planned surprise attempt to assassinate the President, by terrorists, is underway.

Those protecting President Mahama must be commended for showing such restraint in not opening fire with their guns on the Ejisu stone throwers, to protect the President.

If all the Western democracies keep close tabs on political extremists, be they extremist left-wingers or extremist right-wingers, constantly, then the time has come for extremists in Ghana (from across the political spectrum), such as the Bernard Antwi-Boasiakos - who sought to explain away that unjustifiable Ejisu stone-throwing incident and ended up pinning it on disgruntled supporters of the President's own party - should also be monitored round the clock.

Politicians of that ilk are extremely dangerous to Ghana's democracy. They are amoral and ruthless characters who think that in the quest for political power the end justifies the means. It does not. Bernard Antwi-Boasiako must not be allowed to get away with this heinous crime if investigations prove that he was connected to it in any way.

Some of us have had enough of the arrogance of these wealthy, uncouth and foolhardy politicians who are verbally-aggressive and violence-prone - and can't see beyond their noses: and think that they are the only men left in Ghana. They are not.

Real men fight in the battle of ideas - and out-think and out-smart their opponents.

There is absolutely no need for violence in our nation's politics in this day and age. Haaba. Bad-faith politicians must not be allowed to destabilise Ghana.

As it happens, it now turns out that the number of NHIA cardholders registered as voters by the Electoral Commission (EC) nationwide, were actually far less than the millions claimed by the Let My Vote Count Alliance protest group led by yet another set of bad-faith politicians cloaked in the garb of democratic activists - who it now emerges wanted to bring Ghana to a halt for no good reason at all: The NHIA cardholders the EC registered as voters were less than 60,000 nationwide.

That is why the time has now come for decent people in all the political parties - who luckily are in the majority in all the political parties in Ghana - to understand clearly that the presence of wealthy, thuggish and dissembling individuals in leadership positions, who think that somehow brute force can help their parties win power, undermines their own parties and taints Ghanaian democracy.

Those blockheads who think that somehow they can come to power through the kind of public demonstrations that removed the regimes of Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak, and the late Libyan leader, Maummar Gaddafi, from power, are living in cloud-cuckoo-land. It will not happen in Ghana.

The era of violent conduct formented by some leading politicians in pursuit of power is over. Politics today is a competition of ideas and the use of the power of persuation to gain ground in election campaigns. Such brutish types have no place in our nation's politics - and must be rooted out of all the political parties in Ghana.

Ensuring law order in Ghana is a collective responsibility of all Ghanaians. Politicians and political parties ought to regard the discharge of that responsibility by them as their contribution to the nation-building effort. Violence has no place in the politics of our homeland Ghana.

That is why that disgraceful and totally unacceptable stoning of the convoy of President Mahama near Ejisu last night must be thoroughly investigated by the security agencies - and all those involved in it swiftly prosecuted and jailed for that outrage. We are not barbarians and must not tolerate such abominable and unpardonable acts of violence. Period.

Wednesday, 29 June 2016

The astonishing personal attack launched by the New Patriotic Party's (NPP) Kennedy Ohene Adjapong MP, on the chairperson of Ghana's Electoral Commission, Madam Charlotte Osei, marks a new low-point in our nation's politics.

The NPP must move swiftly to condemn the boorish Kennedy Ohene Adjapong for his totally unacceptable behaviour. He is a disgrace to their party and a coward for insulting a respectable woman who deserves her dignity - just as his own wife Mrs Kennedy Ohene Adjapong does deserve her dignity.

Gentlemen don't attack women in such vulgar terms - and the NPP's many well-bred and well-mannered gentlemen, who are in the majority in their party, must demand an immediate apology from Kennedy Ohene Adjapong.

On her part, Madam Charlotte Osei ought to take comfort in the fact that the vast majority of decent and fair-minded Ghanaians - male and female - feel outraged by the slanderous insults hurled at her, by the NPP's verbally-aggressive and uncouth Kennedy Ohene Agyapong.

His vituperative tirade against the chairperson of the EC - that pure nonsense on bamboo stilts from this barbarian who would be a nobody if so many Ghanaians did not foolishly worship the wealthy in society as gods - shows clearly that for some errant Ghanaian politicians, there are no limits to the depths of appalling and dispicable behaviour, to which they are prepared to sink.

Unfortunately, ours is a nation full of serial-philanderers-in-high-places who consistently defile underage girls, and get away with it, because they are powerful and influential men in Ghanaian society.

One day the impunity that currently enables them to escape justice will come to an abrupt end - and they will then be exposed one by one as the depraved monsters they actually are.

For the moment, alas, misogynists indeed rule OK in Ghana. That is why as we speak, there are tens of thousands of vulnerable women trapped in unhappy relationships, and loveless marriages, suffering in silence behind closed doors, across our homeland Ghana. They are the cowed and helpless victims of vile and amoral men.

Without question, the demonisation of the person of the EC's first female chairperson, would never have occured to the same extent that it has, if she had been a man. However, she will shame all her cynical critics by holding truly free and fair elections this November, to the admiration and applause of the entire world, God willing. Amen.

Unfortunately, the sad thing in all this, is that in the main, Ghana's womenfolk have not all condemned that unacceptable demonisation of Madam Charlotte Osei, by our hypocritical politicians, and their mean-spirited mercenary-lackeys, in the Ghanaian media world.

For some of us, it is unbearable to think that those narcissistic, unprofessional, tiresome and mostly third-rate journalists also have overblown ideas about themselves, in addition to their many sins against Mother Ghana. Some in that mean-spirited and partisan rented-media crowd, are the worst of the misogynistic demagogues, in our midst. Pure poison. And unpatriotic on top too.

Thus, that outrage, has unfortunately been allowed to take hold, in the propaganda battles between the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), and Ghana's main opposition party, the NPP - the constituent political parties that make up the amoral and corruption-riddled NDC/NPP duopoly - on the airwaves of television and FM radio stations across the country. Pity.

That is why our womenfolk, who constitute the majority demographic-grouping in the total population of Ghana, ought to draw the same conclusion from the abominable, unspeakable and unpardonable insults that that philistine, the ever-so-loud Kennedy Ohene Agyapong - who knows the price price of everything under the African sun, but hasn't the faintest idea of their intrinsic worth - heaped on Madam Charlotte Osei, the EC's chairperson.

The time has now come for Ghanaian women to stop allowing themselves to be treated as second-class citizens in the nation that they virtually carry on their shoulders, and demand gender parity now. Today. Not tomorrow.

That should be their focus in politics - instead of playing second fiddle in political parties to the mostly worthless and irresponsible men who dominate our nation's politics and virtually control political parties in this country.

Ghanaian women must, at the very least, be guaranteed half the seats in Ghana's Parliament, be given half of the total number of Cabinet positions any President of the Republic of Ghana selects amongst those he or she appoints as government ministers - as well as have half the total number of senior positions in the top echelons of all our institutions of state, and sundry public-sector entities, reserved for them.

Any presidential candidate who commits to allotting half the total number of cabinet ministers he or she appoints, to women, deserves the support of Ghanaians.

No serious modern African nation that wants to prosper can afford to ignore a talent-pool that is more than 50% of its total population. One of the reasons why tiny Rwanda is doing so well is because it values the talents of its womenfolk. We ought to do so too in Nkrumah's Ghana.

If it is indeed true that Dr.Paa Kwesi Nduom is said to have no reservations about any of the above in private, then the time has now come for him to state that openly, and publicly commit to that as a priority policy he will implement if elected President.

Ghana's womenfolk in turn will vote for him in their numbers to become the leader of the all-inclusive administration he has promised to form when he becomes Ghana's President.

Above all, no presidential candidate who does not commit to the needed constitutional changes that will bring about gender parity in Ghanaian society - begining with reserving half the seats in Parliament and Cabinet for women - should be supported by any of our womenfolk. Period.

Committing to that ought to be the basis of Ghanaian women's support for presidential candidates in this November's elections. Ghana emaa abre. Haaba.

Monday, 27 June 2016

I had a very interesting conversation yesterday evening with a young Ghanaian-American entrepreneur who was born in the U.S. and has a business here - although she is actually resident in the U.S.

She had read yesterday's Ghanapolitics blog post and agreed wholeheartedly with us that cultural conditioning has a lot to do with the lack of progress on many fronts in Ghanaian society - particularly in our nation's politics.

To her - after what she referred to as the "...years of retrogression since the 4th Republic came into being, during which Ghanaians have suffered from misrule by the lackeys of neo-colonialsm, who seldom do any original thinking..." - it was a no-brainer that Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom is the best candidate for Ghanaians to elect as their nation's next President, in the November presidential election.

She was horrified that as a result of cultural conditioning, the presidential candidates of the duopoly made up of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) - that have governed Ghana since 1992 and which when in power are always beholden to the very vested interests divvying-up our nation's wealth - are considered the only viable presidential candidates by the vast majority of ordinary Ghanaians. ''How can that be?" she asked in amazement.

We both agreed that although on a purely human level, both President John Dramani Mahama and Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo are decent and affable gentlemen, at this critical juncture of our nation's history, it is crucial that the NDC/NPP duopoly's hold on power in Ghana is brought to an end, in this November's presidential and parliamentary elections - and that the baton of leadership is passed on to a President Paa Kwesi Nduom on 7/7/2017. Amen.

The plain truth is that high-level corruption is slowly bleeding Mother Ghana to death. That is why the NDC/NPP duopoly's hold on power must be broken and brought to an end in this November's presidential election.

Younger generation Ghanaians ought to understand clearly that neither the NDC nor the NPP can end high-level corruption in Ghana - for they are both equally opaque and ruthless political machines that have corruption built into their DNA.

In reality, the NDC and NPP both exist solely to enable a small cabal of clever and super-ruthless rogues to use them as special purpose legal vehicles to come to power, and take turns to rob Mother Ghana blind and gang-rape her on top of that - which is why their leading lights will neither commit to publicly publishing their assets and those of their spouses before the elections, nor commit to publicly publishing all the sources of their respective party's election campaign funds.

But not all Ghanaians are taken in by the guile of the NDC/NPP duopoly. Unfortunately for them, we are all not fools in Ghana, thank heavens.

That is why the discerning ones amongst ordinary Ghanaians often ponder why it is that ordinary people in this country should continue to suffer, when their homeland Ghana is a nation blessed with enough resources, to make it a very prosperous society.

The simple answer to that is that for Ghana to be turned into an African equivalent of the egalitarian societies of Scandinavia, it must be placed into the hands of leadership of the right calibre - made up of incorruptible, selfless and world-class individuals who are highly respected in their respective fields of human endeavour.

At this stage one has to think of the impressive legacy of Paa Kwesi Nduom - and how from a humble background and by dint of sheer hard work, unyielding determination and foresight he has built a world-class business empire spanning three continents that employs thousands, and creates wealth that mostly remains in Ghana.

How blind can Ghanaians be, I ask? Is that not precisely the kind of background the next President of Ghana ought to have?

The question then is: Will cultural conditioning allow a people - a majority of whose blinkered political philosophy is based on the antediluvian nation-wrecking and dangerous motto: "My party, my tribe, right or wrong!" - to come to the conclusion that it is now vital that the NDC/NPP duopoly's hold on power is finally ended?

And that for that reason, must Ghanaians elect a new leader for their country who can actually transform our benighted nation, into a prosperous society - because he or she has a stellar track-record of achievement under his or her belt to prove it?

As a practical and results-oriented leader Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom towers above all those who are vying for the presidency in this November's presidential election, including both the NDC/NPP duopoly's candidates, President John Dramani Mahama and Nana Addo Danquah Akufo Addo.

If elected as President, Nduom will unify the deeply divided and polarised Ghanaian polity, as leader of a government of national unity made up of the brightest-and-best-in-field Ghanaians, from across the political spectrum.

When elected, a President Paa Kwesi Nduom will move rapidly to rebuild our hobbled national economy, and make sure that his government of national unity's economic policies benefit all hardworking Ghanaians - by using rhe purchasing power of the Ghanaian nation-state to provide them with ample opportunities to create wealth for themselves and their dependents.

As it happens, Nduom is already doing so in his private capaclty, by providing meaningful employment for the thousands of productive employees who are responsible for the operations of the nearly 50 or so businesses in his Groupe Nduom conglomerate - all of which are underpinned by an ethical ethos and managed by dedicated and honest men and women guided by corporate good governance principles.

Ghanaians, particularly the younger generation, whose collective and individual futures are at stake in this November's presidential election, must not allow cultural conditioning to let them sleepwalk into a disaster on polling day, by voting yet again for the NDC/NPP duopoly to be returned to power.

They must finally end the baleful influence of the NDC/NPP duopoly in Ghana by rejecting both their presidential candidates. Younger generation Ghanaians must plump instead for Paa Kwesi Nduom and vote to elect him as Ghana's next President.

Above all, younger generation Ghanaians must remember, on polling day, that unlike all the other presidential candidates, Nduom is absolutely determined to probe all the regimes that have held power since the 4th Republic came into being. He is not going to allow any of those who have swindled Mother Ghana whiles in power to get away with it. Power to him.

That is the mark of a genuinely patriotic and nationalistic Ghanaian leader who is truly commited to fighting high-level corruption and determined to finally bring it to an end.

In the supreme national interest, Nduom's government will hold all the past regimes in the 4th Republic - from that of President Rawlings through to that of President Kufuor, to the government of President Mills and that of President Mahama's administration - accountable for their actions and in actions whiles in power: to send a clear message to the world that the days of impunity in Ghana are finally over.

The untouchable Stan Dogbes and other denizens of the Flagstaff House will have no hiding place to run to then. Fantastic.

To show Ghanaians that he is in politics to serve his nation and all its people without exception - as opposed to wanting to get into power just to enable his family and friends to steal from the national treasury - Nduom is also committed to publicly publishing his assets and those of his dear wife Yvonne Nduom.

And he is also committed to publicity publishing all the sources of funding for the election campaign of the party he founded, the Progressive People's Party (PPP), which he also did before the 2012 elections.

The public publication of assets by politicians and their spouses, and the public publication of all the sources of the funds for the election campaigns of political parties, is something that is fundamental to the success of the fight against high-level corruption.

Yet, both President Mahama and Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, and their spouses, and their two parties that constitute the NDC/NPP duopoly, have all woefully failed to do so, thus far - a failing that should not be lost on discerning younger generation Ghanaians.

Their studious silence speaks volumes. This blog boldly predicts that the NDC/NPP duopoly and its leading lights will never opt for transparency in this particular matter.

Why do the voluble Maxwell Kofi Jumahs, the Sammy Awukus, Bernard Antwi-Boasiakos, John Boadus, the Dr. Mahamadu Bawumias, the Kyei Mensah Bonsus, Samuel Atta Akyeas, the Kokou Anyidohos, Philip Owusu Kwakyes, the Kofi Adams, the Kwadwo Twum Boafos and the Dr. Omane Boamahs, all suddenly lose their voices when it comes to this issue? How strange.

And why do the hosts of the media platforms that they exchange counter-accusations and shout at other so rudely on, never ask them whether or not they are prepared to publicly publish their assets and those of their spouses, and that of their parties - as their contribution to the fight against high-level corruption in Ghana, and to show Ghanaians that they are honest people who want to serve Ghana: and are not in politics with the aim of coming to power to loot from the national treasury? Odd, that.

Their strange inability to speak about this particular matter, is in sharp contrast to Nduom's public position. Nduom, it ought to be noted, is lucid when speaking about its importance, in the fight against high-level corruption in Ghana. Good man. Brave man. Sincere man. Patriot.

In light of all the above, it will be fair for this blog to say that Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom is most certainly, far and away the best candidate for Ghanaians to elect to become their nation's next President, after this November's presidential election. We rest our case.

Sunday, 26 June 2016

Could our traditional culture be one of the reasons why many Ghanaians never think of Facebook as the perfect partner to collaborate with Ghana to enable our nation compile a new voters register and set up a new national ID system?

Alas, no matter which part of the country one travels to, traditional Ghanaian culture stifles personal initiative in young people, and drowns out the sense of curiosity in most young children.

Sadly, bold and talkative children fond of asking questions - treasured elsewhere for being precocious - are often browbeaten, until they are cowed into submission, in Ghana: and invariably end up becoming submissive individuals in adulthood. It is not therefore surprising that this not a society in which creative thinkers abound - and from which precious few innovations emerge.

The aforementioned societal drawbacks, naturally don't not make for a nation in which people speak their minds boldly and freely - and take a principled stand on issues of national concern without fear or favour. Perhaps it also a factor in why ours is a nation in which there is a dearth of imaginative people - and in which people seldom think creatively when faced with a challenge.

Unfortunately, it has also led to a herd mentality, amongst most Ghanaians - something that is reflected in the way so many Ghanaians stick to the political parties they normally support, no matter how corrupt and clueless their leaders are.

Otherwise why would Ghanaians not immediately cotton on to the fact that it is in their own individual self-interest, and in the national interest, that Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom - the only significant political leader in Ghana who is committed to the public publication of assets by politicians and their spouses before elections - becomes Ghana's President, because we have reached a critical juncture in our history when we need to elect a truly transformational leader who knows how to create jobs and wealth: to turn Ghana into a prosperous nation?

And talking about job creation and wealth creation, is it any wonder that ours is a nation in which so many copycat businesses sprout up across the country once a particular business venture becomes a roaring success? Ghana is a global superpower in the art and science of copycat pop-ups.

And people wonder why so many SMEs in Ghana fail to survive their initial years. Invariably no proper planning is done by their promoters - who often fail to carry out feasibility studies and seldom have bankable business plans. It is all done on a wing and a mega-church-prayer.

It takes the creativity of the Paa Kwesi Nduoms in our midst to create thriving conglomerates, consisting of close to 50 companies operating successfully in different sectors of the national economy, and overseas, in such a conformist society.

The question is: In light of all the above, should we be surprised that it seems so hard for many in Ghana to do the lateral thinking needed, to see how Facebook and Blockchain Technologies Incorporated, could work with the National Identification Authority (NIA), the Electoral Commission of Ghana (EC), and all the political parties in our country, to create a cutting-edge 21st century national identification system, and compile a fraud-proof electoral register for our nation?

It has probably never even occurred to Facebook itself before that it could develop a new business model for collaborating with nations like Ghana, to create national digital ecosystems that make it possible for citizens to interact directly with each other (either as individuals or in community groupings), and with state agencies and entities, in real time - and vice versa.

And with blockchain technology all that would be fraud-free and tamper-proof. Facebook's artificial intelligence facial recognition software would underpin both the national ID system (containing individuals'digital bio-data-files) and the database of the EC voters register. Facebook would bear the cost of the whole package - in exchange for access to the relevant data it agrees in advance with Ghana that it can leverage, for its social media platform.

Actually, this is not as whacky an idea as it sounds. That is why this blog urges our nation's political parties and the EC to give it a thought. No other public private partnership (PPP) could deliver such complex, comprehensive and secure systems within the timeframe-window available to the EC before polling day.

After all, Facebook handles hundreds of millions of "transactions" daily, does it not - so creating a database for the EC and NIA, containing individual digital ID bio-data-files for a mere 30 million citizens of the Republic of Ghana, using its artificial intelligence facial recognition software, won't be a problem for the social media behemoth.

Facebook has the capability and technology that Ghana can leverage, to create a national ID system and compile a new voters register fit for the digital age, which will be ready in time for the November presidential and parliamentary elections.

Thursday, 23 June 2016

Some genius in the New Patriotic Party (NPP), is reported to have stated that the NPP plans to allow private individuals, to export cocoa beans, as one of the reforms it intends to carry out in the cocoa sector, when it wins this November's presidential election.

Speaking as someone whose family farms cocoa organically, I feel duty-bound to sound a note of caution, in the national interest, to the Yaw Osafo Marfos, who are apparently keen to carry out 'reforms' in the cocoa industry.

The same 'reforms' carried out in the state energy-generating sector, only ended up virtually crippling the Volta River Authority - in the break-up of what hitherto had been a truly world-class power-generating and electricity grid-managing entity.

The cocoa industry is far too important a sector of our national economy, to be messed around with, by "book-long" neo-liberal politicians - ideologues who haven't the faintest idea of the effect their so-called free market 'reforms' have invariably had on the ground in the real world.

Has Singapore not become prosperous through well-thought-out state intervention, in vital sectors of its national economy?

Has that not enabled her to create powerful global class-leading biotech companies, for example, which leverage the results of research and development carried out by state-funded research institutions? And has it also not enabled her to attract virtually all the world's leading biotech companies to use Singapore as a manufacturing hub in Asia? Ditto its next door neighbour Malaysia - particularly with its agricultural sector?

Any attempt by neo-liberal ideologues in the NPP to break up the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) - if their party really does have such an intention, that is - and end the COCOBOD's near-monopoly in the export of cocoa beans, will inevitably lead to a sharp drop in the incomes of smallholder cocoa farmers, and see living standards plummet in cocoa-farming communities, across the forest belt, and other cocoa growing areas.

The only people who will end up benefitting from any such 'reforms' will be the fatcat crony-capitalist pals of our ruling elites. The national interest lies in maintaining the key role the COCOBOD plays in the industry.

Why do our greed-filled vampire-elites not know when to stop ripping-off Mother Ghana, I ask?

Some of us are beginning to tire of the unfathomable greed that seems to drive them. They are ruining our homeland Ghana with their selfishness and ruthless disregard for the well-being of our country and its people in their quest to amass untold wealth.

They must be careful - lest the pent-up anger of the masses of the Ghanaian people finally explodes. But I digress.

In spite of being overmanned and costing far too much to run - and being beholden to the vested interests that supply the industry's inputs - the COCOBOD does make a real difference to the well-being of smallholder cocoa farmers.

It has also ensured that Ghana continues to maintain its global reputation as the source of the best-quality cocoa beans in the world, for decades now. That is to be commended.

The cocoa industry ought not to be toyed with by feckless politicians under any circumstances - for it is Mother Ghana's very lifeblood.

What needs to be done, is to reduce the cost of running the COCOBOD, and make it a lean and nimble organisation - and get it to find a creative means of increasing yields of cocoa trees without enveloping them in a miasma of carcinogenic pesticides in mass-spraying exercises.

And depleted soils can be enriched in cocoa farms through the adoption of environmentally-friendly cultural practices, and sustainable farming methods, such as the regular use of compost and natural growth mediums.

Furthermore, it simply does not make sense to encourage farmers to keep piling on tonnes of synthetic fertilisers, to ameliorate the lack of nutrients in the soils of cocoa farms. Not when natural organic alternatives such as those produced by BioDeposit are available.

Since more and more people who consume cocoa products across the globe, are opting for organic cocoa products, perhaps increasing yields of organic cocoa trees, could eventually be achieved by switching to the use of highly effective natural foliar fertilisers and organic growth-mediums.

Indeed, this blog confidently predicts that using organic foliar fertilisers and organic growth mediums produced by companies such as the Latvian-domiciled BioDeposit, could help Ghana meet the illusive 1 million tonnes production target for cocoa beans, which it has aimed for, for so long, but is yet to achieve, unfortunately.

Incidentally, having personally tried their products, the COCOBOD would be wise to ask the Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana (CRIG), to work with BioDeposit, to get its products tested and approved for use in the annual mass-spraying of cocoa farms, which it sponsors in cocoa growing areas.

Initially, it will make Ghana the world's biggest producer of pesticide-free cocoa beans - from smallholder farms that could eventually be given organic certification: after the required 3-year conversion period has passed.

That could turn Ghana into a source of organic cocoa beans - and secure the local industry's long-term future.

If that happens, could giant supermarket chains from nations around the world, not be encouraged to source their own-brand, fairtrade organic chocolates, and other organic cocoa products, from Ghanaian cocoa processors such as the ailing state-owned Cocoa Processing Company?

Incidentally, significantly, SIAAO UK Limited, is owned by the Ivorian businessman, Sow Abdramane, and plays an important role in the agricultural sector of the national economy of the Ivory Coast. Ditto that of the Republic of Cameroon.

Alas, I digressed yet again: So back to the topic of concern to this blog for our final words to the NPP as regards its agenda for Ghana's cocoa industry - if it actually has any, that is.

The time has definitely come for the NPP to clarify the reform agenda it has in mind for the cocoa industry. Any costly experimentation for ideological reasons will only end up decimating Ghana's cocoa industry. That will amount to sounding the death knell for our national economy. Literally.

Sometimes it is pretty hard not to feel contempt for Ghana's political class. What have Ghanaians done to deserve such an obtuse political class?

Listening to the National Democratic Congress' (NDC) Kwadwo Twum-Boafos having a heated argument with the New Patriotic Party's (NPP) Kwamena Duncans, over the NPP's presidential candidate, Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo's proposal to set up one factory in every district in Ghana, on Peace FM's Kokrokoo morning show, hosted by Kwame Sefa Kaye, this morning, I wondered what the point of the argument was.

That the constituent parties that make up the NDC/NPP duopoly, which have governed Ghana since the 4th Republic came into being, are actually arguing over the feasibility of implementing a policy of having one factory in every district of Ghana, at a time when the world's 3-D printing industry is growing, and will disrupt the business models of many manufacturers, sums up the tragedy of our nation perfectly.

Sadly, Ghana is now dominated by a mostly unimaginative, educated urban elite that is provincial in outlook, shortsighted and lacks original thinking. Ghana will never fulfill its potential if it is lumbered with such politicians.

Ghanains ought to understand that this nation will never progress if they do not to turn to someone practical and successful at creating wealth and jobs, such as Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom - to lead a national unity coalition government, made of the best-in-field Ghanaians, with proven individual track records of solid achievement, in their respective fields, to rescue Mother Ghana from the clutches of the greed-filled, incompetent and corrupt NDC/NPP duopoly.

The question is: Is it not paucity of thought that makes the NDC and NPP fight over who first had an idea, and whether or not it is a feasible policy to implement - when every single one of the proposed factories in every district of Ghana, could suddenly be made redundant by disruptive 3-D printing technology?

Why should such political parties that seldom keep abreast with new technological developments rule Ghana?

For example, are roads not still being washed away across Ghana by flash floods, when a simple new technology - mixing melted plastic waste with bitumen - can enable Ghana to climate-change-proof its entire road network with plastic roads that will remain pothole-free throughout their lifespan, last three times longer than conventional roads, bear heavier loads, and, because plastic is impermeable to water, will never be washed away by flash floods?

Who has heard any of those geniuses clamouring to be given the mandate to govern Ghana, promising to build such roads in Ghana? Why make promises to use taxpayers' money to build factories in every district that will only end up being looted by their management and workers?

There are many Ghanaians who could set up factories in districts across the country, on their own, if they could be funded to have their products tested and approved by the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA).

Will it not be far more beneficial to the country, to focus on finding a creative way to fund such GSA tests to enable those individuals market their products - and create wealth and jobs?

Are such individuals not far more likely to adopt 3-D printing technology as a means of improving productivity, than ponderous state-owned factories that will only end up being mismanaged and milked dry by those appointed to manage them because of their political leanings - as has been the case with most state-owned business entities?

It will be a real tragedy to entrust the governing of our homeland Ghana, into the grasping hands of the NDC/NPP duopoly. They are both not fit to govern this country yet again.

Friday, 17 June 2016

Will the revelation that President Mahama received a luxury model Ford Expedition SUV from the wealthy Burkinabe contractor, Djibril Kanazoe, as a gift, whiles serving as vice president to the late President Mills, threaten his presidency? Probably not, according to a number of commentators.

Others, on the contrary, think it might very well do so. Well, we all await the denouement of this particular presidential scandal, which has come to light at a point in time when Ghanaians - the vast majority of whom are now thoroughly fed up with Mother Ghana being constantly ripped-off - are demanding an end to high-level corruption once and for all.

Actually, there is absolutely nothing wrong, with the leader of any African nation receiving gifts from colleague leaders, as tokens of the friendship between the peoples of their respective nations.

Indeed, the convention in most of the liberal democracies of the West, is that if they are valuable gifts, it is understood that they belong to the nation.

Whether or not a gift is kept by a host leader, depends entirely on the value, nature and function of the gift - and the reason stated by the visiting foreign dignatory for presenting it. Less valuable gifts generally can be kept by our Presidents.

Let us imagine, for example, a scene at a ceremony at the Flagstaff House, where a visiting head of state is replying to a welcoming statement by President Mahama, who is seated and looking directly at him.The visiting leader informs President Mahama that his country is presenting 4 air ambulances to Ghana, for use by the Ghana Health Service.

At that point, he then beckons to an aide who brings a wooden children's rocking horse to where Ghana's president sits. The visiting foreign leader then turns to President Mahama and says, "And Your Excellency, this rocking horse is for your dear little son, Mamudu!"

Clearly, in that hypothetical case, that less valuable gift, can definitely be kept by President Mahama. That rocking horse was meant for a named individual, Mamudu, to whom President Mahama would have to give it. It is not a bribe.

Neither can it make any difference to the relationship between Ghana and the visiting leader's country - for nations have permanent interests, not permanent friends. So a conflict of interest situation does not arise, either.

However, those regime-apologists who seem to think that this is a mere tempest-in-a-Sandema-calabash, ought to understand that there is a world of difference, between the above scenario, and that of the situation faced by a Ghanaian President, whom it is alleged accepted a valuable gift from a wealthy foreign contractor, keen to win government contracts in Ghana, when he was serving as vice president to President Evans John Atta Mills.

No leader with a moral compass would ever accept such a gift under those circumstances - as he or she would automatically decline it from habit and by inclination.

Perchance, is that why President Mahama hesitated, when posed the question had he ever been personally corrupt before, by a BBC reporter, during the recent international conference on corruption in London?

This unfolding scandal has the potential to destroy President Mahama's chances of winning this November's presidential election. Let no one make a mistake about that.

If there are other Ali-Baba-and-the-forty-thieves type of scandals hidden in the President's closet, about what he did when serving as vice president to President Mills, many of them will definitely emerge this side of November's scheduled polling date.

If the President's motive for his friendship with the wealthy Burkinabe contractor, Djibril Kanazoe, arose from the fact that he is a contractor with a reputation for executing jobs to a very high standard, and that giving him contracts in Ghana would somehow redound to the nation's benefit, it would have been far wiser for the President to have rejected the Burkinabe contractor's gift.

What would have been more prudent, was for the President to have simply informed Kanazoe that he was welcome to bid for jobs in Ghana, like any other foreign contractor is allowed to, by our nation's laws on public procurement.

Let us not forget that as we speak there are countless politicians in the Western democracies serving jail sentences for receiving gifts from wealthy businesspeople keen to obtain government contracts.

At best President Mahama was imprudent in accepting the gift of a luxury model Ford Expedition SUV from Djibril Kanazoe. However, we cannot rule out the fact that it might also be solid evidence that in reality he is a very corrupt politician - as many of his critics have always insisted he is.

And corruption is not only about stealing from the national treasury. It is also about amoral serial-philanderers handing out government contracts to voluptuous bimbos, their favourites amongst their family clans, and their super-wealthy and overly-generous crony-capitalist pals.

Unfortunately, the presidency is full of such rogues and perverts - just as it was under the super-corrupt, Hypocrite-in-Chief, President Kufuor: who used to personally receive kickbacks at the Osu Castle, and apparently sat on all of it, denying any of it to his party, according to the then party national chairperson, Haruna Esseku.

"Who born dog?" to quote a pidgin English phrase much-favoured by ex-President Rawlings. Saajewah. Fun-full-respect, Sir.

Today, he is Saint Kufuor, according to the garrulous Sammy Awukus, and John Boadus - who, thus far, it ought to be noted, have singularly failed to tell Ghanaians when exactly they, and all the other leading lights of their party-of-hypocrites, plan to publicly publish their assets, and those of their spouses, before the November elections: to prove to Ghanaians that they have only good intentions in seeking power.

The tragedy for our nation, is that the Sammy Awukus and John Boadus have no such plans, and have no intention of ever doing so, either. Yet, they never stop talking about corruption. The painful truth, is that they are simply waiting to take their turn, in the ongoing brutal gang-rape of Mother Ghana.

Publicly publishing their assets, and those of their spouses, would make it that harder, for the Sammy Awukus and the John Boadus to amass the wealth they seek, in the shortest possible time. That is why they refuse to commit to that very effective anti-corruption measure. It is obvious that they are all in politics for the same reason: the acquisition of wealth.

And some innocent souls wonder why ordinary Ghanaians have continuously struggled to survive ever since the 4th Republic came into being.

Since ordinary Ghanaians stubbornly refuse to remove the blinkers from their eyes, and stop being so misguided in holding on to the ridiculous and antediluvian "My party, my tribe, right or wrong!" philosophy of life, they will continue to struggle and suffer, whiles a privileged few from the NDC/NPP duopoly, and their families and friends, divvy-up our nation's wealth amongst themselves.

What do ordinary Ghanaians expect? They must put their thinking caps on when politicians make promises to them and read between the lines. They must think, think, think and think again. Think West Blue. Think Smarttys. Think RLG. Think Jospong Group. Think E. O. Group. Think International Aluminium Partners. Think judgement debts. Think Woyome. Big, time.

Ordinary Ghanaians need to stop allowing political parties and self-seeking politicians to take Mother Ghana for a ride, if they want their lot to be bettered. Quiet simple, really.

Doubtless, the New Patriotic Party (NPP), too, will have their own equivalents of the West Blues and Smarttys, when in power. Heaven help us when those hungry and super-greedy hordes of philistines descend upon the Flagstaff House. Ye wu ankasa. Hmm, Ghana - enti yewieye paa enei? Eyeasem o.

How Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah must be turning in his grave. The millions of clueless souls who think that Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo will bring about rule by saints had better think again.

In pleading for party executives at all levels not to rock the boat, he once told them not to forget that appointments to the boards of public-sector institutions and organisations, were in his gift as President.

Incidentally, one wonders where Adakabre Frimpong Manso & Co will finally end up at when the NPP wins power again - as a quid pro quo for keeping quiet and ceasing to rock the much-battered NPP boat that flies a flag of convenience. Deputy ministers, perhaps?

So under Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo's presidency, regime-cronies and party hacks will also enjoy the same good fortune, which is currently being experienced by the Bernard Allotey Jacobs in our midst - and Ghanaians will find that the boards of public-sector entities will be jam-packed with genuises: square-pegs-in-round-holes, to a man, gradually ruining state entities and being paid obscene sums of taxpayers' money for the privilege, too. One weeps for Mother Ghana.

Our problem is that we run a plutocratic system dressed up as a democracy - a perfect-fit-system tailor-made specifically to enable a military dictatorship transition to a democracy: with sweeping powers for the President. It simply meant that the defunct military dictatorship could carry on with business as usual unhindered, even in the new era of democracy.

That is why the phrase "Saa democracy nonsense yi!" could flow from the lips of that ace-hypocrite, Hon. Samuel Atta Akyea, during the time he and other members of the ruthless and amoral cabal of insiders around Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo, were busy maneuvering to hang on to power, after losing the December 2008 presidential election.

The thought of losing power, because the masses had had the temerity to vote against their regime, outraged and appalled those closet-fuedalists.

In the same conversation, that cynical plutocrat, also implied that everyone has a price - pure nonsense as there are some who can never be bought because they are principled - in reference to Dr. Afari Djan: by recounting an anecdote, in which his mother had once apparently advised him, never to allow those close to him to ever go hungry.

Given the context in which he said so, it was clearly a Twi euphemism for let's use intelligence reports to find Dr. Kwadjo Afari Djan, and pay him as much as he wants, to do our bidding, and help us stay in power.

And to think that he sits on Parliamentary select committees lecturing people about the rule of law, transparency, equity and due process. He is getting away with it because Ghanaians refuse to see the reality of the nature of the society that has evolved in Ghana, since President Nkrumah's overthrow in 1966.

Alas, our reality, is that Ghana is a well-endowed nation, which has evolved into an unequal society in which huge disparities in wealth exist, that is dominated by hypocrites and pathological liars, who govern the country for the benefit of a few powerful, wealthy and amoral individuals - the very thing President Nkrumah sought to prevent with his policies and vision of creating an African equivalent of the egalitarian societies of Scandinavia.

Amazingly, voters never once ponder the ends for which politicians seek power. If they did, they would never vote for any of the parties that make up the NDC/NPP duopoly that have taken turns to govern our nation since the 4th Republic came into being.

Neither do voters ever ask politicians the nature of the society they seek to build in Ghana. That is why Nkrumah's Ghana has evolved into a dog-eat-dog society, in which an all-pervasive selfishness culture reigns supreme - and people can lie, cheat, steal and even murder their way to the top of the greasy-pole: and be applauded for it. Pity. But I digress.

The leadership of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) must be prudent and open-minded in this matter - and move quickly to establish the true facts: such as whether or not Djibril Kanazoe has made other expensive gifts to the President, and other members of his family, and, above all, in whose name the vehicle was originally registered as its owner.

They will have to demand that as a price for being allowed to stay on in office as Ghana's leader, President Mahama will step down as the NDC's presidential candidate, if they are convinced that his dealings with Djibril Kanazoe amount to acts of corruption.

With elections looming, they must not rule out the possibility that the floodgates will eventually open, close to polling day, as public-sector whistleblowers - emboldened by Joy FM's Manasseh Azure's disclosures - who might also be aware of similar gifts from Kanazoe, and other wealthy crony-capitalist friends of President Mahama's, follow suit too, in a bid to ensure the NDC loses power at the close of polling day.

And to say that the vehicle from Djibril Kanazoe has been included in the pool of vehicles for the presidency does not provide a satisfactory answer to discerning and independent-minded Ghanaians in this matter.

The question there is: When did the vehicle arrive in Accra and when exactly was it allocated to the pool of vehicles for the presidency?

Is there irrefutable documentary proof of the order transferring it to the vehicle pool at the presidency? Who gave that order and who signed that letter allocating the vehicle to the presidency, and when was it written and dispatched to those in charge of the official vehicles for the presidency? Yenye enkwalaa ewor Ghana o.

To many discerning Ghanaians, the idea that government spokespersons think that that kind of Kweku-Ananse-spin put on a major government scandal, to justify the unjustifiable, will fool them, is to insult their intelligence.

And they find that kind of egregious dissembling deeply offensive. The Johnson Asiedu Nketias must not forget that it is that particular electoral demographic's crucial swing-votes that decide who wins presidential elections in today's Ghana. Hmm...

The NDC's leadership ignores their opinions on national issues at their own peril. That is why their Plan B presidential election strategy must be to swallow their pride, take the bitter pill, and nominate Martin Amidu as their presidential candidate to replace President Mahama, and keep Vice President Paa Kwesi Amissah Arthur as his running mate.

Their ruthlessness in so doing will suddenly change the dynamics of the election campaign and help them retain power after the November elections. That is what will save the NDC from losing the November presidential election.

It is time the canny Johnson Asiedu Nketias woke up to the fact that no politician (across the spectrum) has more moral authority than Martin Amidu commands in today's Ghana.

And they must also remember that there is not a single educated Ghanaian who does not know that the principled and patriotic Martin Amidu stands for what will benefit our nation and all its people - for he is not a politician who is blinded by party advantage at the expense of the national interest and the well-being of all Ghanaians.

Should the need arise for the. NDC to find a new presidential candidate, if they are creative in their thinking, at that point in time, they will come to the realisation that Martin Amidu is indeed their secret weapon for winning the November presidential election. They must embrace him now - for he will snatch victory from the jaws of near-certain defeat in that election: and enable them retain power again.

Tuesday, 14 June 2016

A German company, Gustav F.W. Hamester GmbH & Co KG, is attempting to liquidate West African Mills Company Limited (WAMCO) - a cocoa processing company. Incredibly, and contrary to the laws of our country, it is being done without the consent of the minority shareholder, the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD), which has a 40% stake in the company.

Although both shareholders apparently agree to the liquidation of the company, Gustav F. W. Hamester GmbH & Co KG, wants it to be done privately - true to form for a business with an opaque company culture - whiles the COCOBOD wants it done publicly, to ensure transparency, and to obtain higher asset disposal values.

The COCOBOD, also insists on the repayment of an outstanding debt of U.S.$4.9 million WAMCO owes it, for years of unpaid supplies of cocoa beans, delivered to its factories. Yet, Gustav F. W. Hamester GmbH & Co KG has conveniently disregarded the issue of owed debt to COCOBOD, and is proceeding with the asset disposal, regardless. Amazing.

It is outrageous that such a thing can occur in Nkrumah's Ghana - and every patriotic Ghanaian must ensure that the COCOBOD prevents any such liquidation of the company's assets, by Gustav F.W Hamester GmbH & Co KG - without the settlement of the outstanding debt owed the COCOBOD by WAMCO.

As someone whose family farms cocoa organically, one cannot help but be incensed by Gustav F.W. Hamester GmbH & Co KG's unpardonable skullduggery, in this brazen attempt at destabilising the COCOBOD. A company with such dark motives run by individuals so contemptuous of our nation and its laws must not be allowed to cheat Mother Ghana and get away with it under any circumstances.

For the benefit of readers, this blog is quoting part of the report on the outcome of a claim brought against the Republic of Ghana, by Gustav F.W. Hamester GmbH & Co KG, at the International Centre for the Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), which it lost.

An ICSID tribunal has rejected an investor's claims under a bilateral investment treaty (BIT) on the basis that they were contractual claims and did not constitute breaches of the BIT. The claimant, a German company, sought damages in connection with a dispute with its joint venture partner, the Ghana Cocoa Board.

The claimant failed. The tribunal analysed the nature of the claims and decided that:

The relevant activities of the Ghana Cocoa Board could not be attributed to Ghana and were purely commercial in nature.

The activities of other entities which were attributable to Ghana did not amount to a breach of the Germany-Ghana BIT.

The claimant's claims were contractual claims and did not constitute a breach of the BIT.

The dispute is a good example of a failed attempt to "repackage" purely contractual and commercial claims into investment treaty claims by a creative interpretation of the umbrella clause. (Gustav F W Hamester GmbH & Co KG v Republic of Ghana (ICSID Case No ARB/07/24).)

"Each Contracting Party shall observe any other obligation it has assumed with regard to its investment in its territory by nationals or companies of the other Contracting Party."

The effect of umbrella clauses is to "elevate" breaches of contract to treaty claims. For further discussion of umbrella clauses, see Practice note, Umbrella clauses.

Facts

The claimant was a German company involved in the international cocoa trade. In 1992, the claimant concluded a joint venture agreement with the Ghana Cocoa Board (the Board). Under the joint venture agreement, the claimant and the Board set up a company (West African Mills Company (Wamco)) to which the Board contributed an old factory, the modernisation of which was financed by the claimant. Wamco was supplied with cocoa beans by the Board and the entire output of the Wamco factory was sold to the claimant. Throughout the life of the project, there were constant payment disputes and problems between the claimant, Wamco and the Board.

The claimant first unsuccessfully brought proceedings against Ghana under an arbitration agreement contained in the joint venture agreement. In the present proceedings, the claimant advanced claims under the BIT.

Ghana objected to the tribunal's jurisdiction on the following grounds:
The claimant had no investment in Ghana as a matter of Ghanaian law because, from the very beginning, the investment involved fraud and breaches of fiduciary duty.

End of quoted passage from the ICSID report published online by the Thomson Reuters-owned Practical Law website.

The question is: If Gustav F.W. Hamester GmbH & Co KG lost the case against the Republic of Ghana - which it took to the ICSID, as far back as 2007-2008, and judgement of which was finally published in 2010 - in its rip-off attempt to dupe our country to the tune of tens of millions of euros, why are they still in Ghana, flouting our laws, in 2016?

How can it be that although Gustav F.W. Hamester GmbH & Co KG lost the ICSID case, today, it is actually attempting to liquidate the company at the centre of the dispute between it and Ghana, WAMCO, without the consent of the minority shareholder (with a 40% stake), the Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD)?

Would those fraudsters dare carry on in such egregious fashion in their native Germany, I ask? No, never.

So why should they be given free rein to do so here? Ghana most definitely does not need bad-faith investors who neither have a moral compass nor respect Africans. And in any case, the days when Europeans came here to exchange worthless bric-a-brac for valuable gold, are long gone, are they not?

This pure nonsense on bamboo stilts will only occur in our homeland Ghana - for nowhere else in the world, would officialdom permit this outrage to fester for so long. That it is occurring at all, illustrates perfectly, how highly-paid public officials in Ghana, who neglect their duties and never take responsibility for their actions and inactions, are seldom sanctioned.

It is an unfortunate state of affairs that is slowly ruining our homeland Ghana - and it must not be allowed to continue.

This blog's humble advice to the COCOBOD is that it ought to pass all the relevant information about the case to the media in Germany and Switzerland - who will expose the fraudulent activities of Gustav F. W. Hamester GmbH & Co KG, and their co-conspirators, Hosta International AG, of Munenchenstein, Switzerland, to the world.

It is such a pity that this is occurring now because complacent and incompetent officials have allowed a bunch of too clever by half German crooks to run rings around them.

Surely, if the case was under international jurisdiction that includes the U.S., if one's understanding of the tribunal's processes is correct, that is, then it is also worthwhile reporting them to the U.S. Justice Department, for racketeering - which is what fraudulent management practices and the slave-owner-mentality of making workers work for months on end without paying them amount to.

Since their patriotism is beyond doubt, perhaps the Centre for National Affairs' Richard Rocky E. Obeng, and The Chronicle newspaper, should show the COCOBOD how to deal with those rogues - by passing on all the information they have about Gustav F.W. Hamester GmbH & Co KG, to the media in Germany and Switzerland.

Fear of exposure by the media in those two European nations, which could lead to their being investigated, prosecuted, and eventually jailed, by the Federal Swiss and Federal German authorities, is the only way to stop those arrogant rogues - who look down on Ghanaians and think we are all stupid: because many here have been prepared to bend over backwards to assist them at every turn, since they first set foot on Ghanaian soil.

The time has now come for the COCOBOD to take immediate steps to bring the fraudulent activities of Gustav F.W. Hamester & Co KG in Ghana to the attention of the authorities and media in Germany and Switzerland. Enough is enough. Haaba.

Friday, 10 June 2016

Renewable energy storage technologies have so advanced that it is actually possible that a number of forward-thinking nations that are increasing the share of renewables in their power generation mix - such as Portugal, Denmark, Sweden and Germany - might be able to rely on electricity generated from 100% renewable energy sources, for prolonged periods, in the not too distant future.

Ghana's first President, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, believed in the power of science and technology to transform Ghana.

How right he was: Technological advances in the renewables sector could indeed transform Ghana's economy, by making our national economy's private -sector more competitive - by providing businesses with inexpensive renewable energy through off-grid utility-scale and micro-grids with storage.

As we speak, the technological advances made thus far, in the renewables sector of the global power industry, in terms of energy storage, if adopted here, could have a direct impact on the achievement of many of Ghana's sustainable development goals.

For starters, our hard-pressed nation would not have to worry about finding money it does not have, on a regular basis, to purchase either gas or light crude oil to power Ghana's thermal power plants, if we relied on 100% renewable sources for our electricity supply, would we? Food for thought.

Could the money thus saved not be channeled into expanding Ghana's infrastructure, for example? And would that not attract more investment into Ghana - which would create jobs for young people in our country?

And will 100% renewable energy sources powering Ghana, not stop the siphoning off of taxpayers' money into private pockets, by the well-connected crooks in the system, benefitting from the purchase of gas and light crude oil to fire Ghana's thermal power plants - who line their pockets with kickbacks from the crony-capitalists who have a vested interest in the continuation of that particular racket, which is milking Mother Ghana dry, so?

Each such blow dealt to the phenomenon of high-level corruption, makes resources available for investment in other areas of our national life, such as public healthcare and educational institutions - expanding access to both of which will help improve living standards in Ghana yet further.

That is why affordable electricity made possible by power generation from 100% renewable sources must be a national goal - and ought not to be regarded as a pipedream of cranks.

What stops our leaders from convincing the Shenzan Energy Group (SEG) to partner a consortium of Ghanaian and Chinese entrepreneurs to build the worlds biggest offshore wind energy farm with giant wind turbines to generate say 10,000 megawatts of electricity - instead of allowing SEG to build coal-fired power plants here?

Could our nation not earn foreign exchange exporting the excess power to our neighbours - and help improve our trade balance? Ditto improve our balance of payments? And will that not help strengthen and stabilize the Ghana cedi?

The simple reason why we have posted as many as three culled articles in a row, from RenewEconomy (including the last one by Sophie Vorrath, which is posted below this introduction), is that we are keen to help get a national conversation about the potential the renewable energy sector has to provide reliable and affordable electricity, for our country.

When one reads articles, about the future for renewable energy iin nations such as Australia, one cannot help but be convinced that there is an urgent need for a national conversation in Ghana, too, about developing our national economy's power industry's renewables sector.

Clearly, if we are to prosper as a people, and achieve Ghana's sustainable development goals, we must aim for 100% electricity, from renewable sources.

The time has therefore come for Ghana's fence-sitting middle classes to take a long-term view of Ghanaian society's future - and start campaigning now for a lower electricity tariff for tomorrow's Ghana.

They must focus on fighting to bring about an era of affordable electricity in Ghana, in the not too distant future, by demanding that all our nation's political parties commit to ensuring that the renewables sector of our power industry, grows to make a substantial contribution to the power generation-mix, in our homeland Ghana, as soon as practicable.

That is what is needed here to help secure our nation's future - one powered mainly by off-grid utility-scale and micro-grids delivering electricity produced from 100% renewable sources, by private power companies, which are partnerships between Ghanaian entrepreneurs and renewable energy companies from nations such as Australia.

The report, published on Wednesday, argues that Australia could
completely and effectively replace the nation’s mostly coal-based
“baseload” power generators by harnessing huge volumes of renewable
energy – using existing technologies, including battery storage –
distributed across the country.

“The reality is that electricity usage is variable, demand changes
throughout the day and night, and Australia doesn’t need baseload power
generation,” the report says.
“With key market reforms in place to manage the energy transition,
Australians can comfortably let go of the mindset of ‘baseload’ and have
confidence in a modern, reliable, renewable energy sector powering our
future.”

This “mindset” that renewable energy technologies like solar PV and
wind don’t “do baseload” due to the intermittent nature of the resource
has long been a barrier to the wholesale shift to renewables.

But regardless of the rise of energy storage, many energy market
analysts and players argue that the entire model of baseload energy
supply is being made redundant by the shift to cheap and easy
distributed renewables and increasingly sophisticated energy management
software.

Certainly this is the thinking in places like Denmark, which is a
functioning example of modern energy supply without baseload. But it is
also the thinking in China, which still has a huge reliance on
coal-fired power.

As the report notes, and we have reported here before, that much is
evident in the February comments of the chairman of the State Grid
(China’s biggest network owner), who said there was “no technical
challenge at all” preventing grids from running smoothly without
baseload supply. “The only hurdle to overcome is mindset.”

In Germany, 50 Hertz, the company responsible for more than one-third of Germany’s electricity grid, says there is no issue absorbing high levels of variable renewable
energy such as wind and solar, and grids could absorb up to 70 per cent
penetration without the need for storage.

And the message is the same: “It’s about the mindset,” said Boris
Schucht, the company’s CEO. “Ten to 15 years ago when I was a young
engineer, nobody believed that integrating more than 5 per renewable
energy in an industrial state such as Germany was possible.”

In the region Schucht operates in, though, 46 per cent of the power
supply comes from wind and solar. Next year it will be more than 50 per
cent.

In Australia, meanwhile, the mindset remains stubbornly in place, and
yet 100 per cent renewable energy has already become a reality over
given periods in given states, including South Australia and Tasmania.
The report notes that the ACT will soon rely on 100% renewable
energy, with its policy plans to achieve this by 2020 using a mix of
wind and solar, and existing large hydro.

But the report also notes that to support this transition further, it
is vital that Australia urgently review its energy market frameworks to
integrate them with climate change policies.

This very idea – that National Electricity Market laws should include
an environmental objective, to keep Australia’s grid more closely
aligned with its Paris climate commitments and national efforts to cut
power sector emissions – was, however, recently rejected by the federal government.

The recommendation, made by the Australian Greens as part of a
federal government inquiry into the performance and management of
electricity network, was aimed at addressing community concerns about
rising electricity prices and the reasons behind them.

Labor has also promised a review into the National Electricity Market
and its “objectives”, and wants environment to be included. Without it,
Labor climate spokesman Mark Butler said earlier this week, the market
is not fit for purpose and has no signal to decarbonise.

Which brings us back to mindset: “In Australia we are used to the
idea of ‘baseload energy’ being the energy that ensures we can flick the
lights on at any point in the night, but that’s old thinking,” said
Adrian Enright, Climate Change Policy Manager at WWF-Australia.

“The problem is the bulk of our baseload energy comes from high
polluting, ageing coal fired generators. Some of Australia’s existing
baseload capacity was built before man first landed on the moon.

75% of Australia’s existing coal generator fleet is passed its design life, according to the WWF report.

“To enjoy clean air and reduce carbon pollution Australia will need
to shift to a modern, 21st Century model, powered by 100% renewable
energy by 2035. This is possible, affordable and very popular.

In the lead up to the federal Election, WWF-Australia is calling on
all parties to commit to a transition to 100% renewable electricity by
2035."

Continuing our series on examples of the impact of renewable energy projects elsewhere, today's blog post features yet another culled article by RenewEconomy's Giles Parkinson, this time focusing on the renewable energy sector of the Australian state of New South Wales.

Again, one's hope is that our educated urban elites (especially those of them trying to foist coal-fired power plants on our nation for private gain, even though it is not in the long-term national interest to do so) will draw inspiration from it - and realise that there is absolutely no need for despondency about the future of Ghana's power sector: if they put their thinking caps on for once and plan for a future when Ghana relies mainly on renewable sources for its electricity supply.

But in NSW the wind also blew at record levels, and the seven large
scale wind farms delivered a record output, with a combined “capacity
factor” of 56 per cent, more than two of the biggest coal generators in
the state.

Indeed, the Woodlawn wind farm (pictured above) produced an
astounding capacity factor of 62 per cent. Only two of the big five coal
generators, the Mt Piper and Bayswater coal generators, produced at a
higher capacity factor (67 and 66 per cent respectively).

j

The data, compiled by Hugh Saddler from Pitt & Sherry highlight the changing nature of the energy system.

The emergence of rooftop solar and energy efficiency has capped the
amount of electricity used, leaving a huge amount of over capacity in
“base load” power, to the point where many coal generators, such as
Vales Point (44 per cent) and Liddell (52 per cent), are operating at
half their capacity – even if the overall share of coal power has not
fallen.

The 48MW Woodlawn wind farm, located just outside of Canberra, is owned by Infigen Energy.

The top 12 wind farms in Australia, by capacity factor, in the month of May were:

Woodlawn (NSW, 48MW) 62%

Boco Rock (NSW) 59%

Cullerin Range (NSW) 58%

Gunning (NSW) 58%

Taralga (NSW) 57%

Hallet 1 + 2 (S.A.) 57%

Bald Hills (Vic) 56%

Mortons Lane (Vic) 55%

Mt Mercer (Vic) 54%

Woolnorth (Tas) 53%

North Brown Hill (S.A.) 52%

Snowtown South (S.A.) 52%''.

End of culled article by Giles Parkinson of RenewEconomy.

The question is: Is it beyond the capability of our nation to follow the example of New South Wales? The simple answer to that is: No, it is definitely not beyond the capacity of our nation to follow the example of New South Wales' power industry's renewables sector.

If our educated urban elites put their minds to it, they are perfectly capable of freeing Ghana from reliance on fossil fueled power plants, and transitioning to an era in which we rely on renewable sources for providing consumers throughout the nation, with electricity.

Could a consortium made up of some of the many high net worth members of the Executive Keep Fit Club of East Legon, for example, not put together a consortium made up of China's leading giant wind turbine makers, and the Shenzen Energy Group, to build the world's biggest wind farm, to produce 10,000 megawatts of electricity for Ghana?

And with the advances made in renewable energy storage technology, would our nation not be finally freed of the high-cost fossil fuel-fired power plants that produce killer-tariff electricity, if such a welcoming renewables sector development occurred?

Wth renewable energy storage now making it possible for electricity consumers to opt for off-grid energy independence, we must not be despondent about the future of Ghana's power sector.

We literally have a very bright future ahead - if our mostly-unimaginative political class will follow the example of nations that are planning for a future of being powered by 100% energy produced from renewable sources. There is absolutely no need for anyone in our country to be despondent about the future of Ghana's power sector.

Thursday, 9 June 2016

The oil-rich Gulf nations of the United Arab Emirates, are planning for a future when they will have to rely more on renewable energy, than energy from fossil-fuel-fired thermal power plants.

The question is: Does prudence not dictate, and is it not imperative, that Ghana - a much smaller oil and gas producer whose known hydrocarbon resources won't last forever - ought to follow suit too?

Today, as our humble contribution to the national conversation about the renewable energy sector, generally, and off-grid energy independence made possible by off-grid renewable energy micro-grids, with storage, in particular, we are reproducing our promised second culled article from the online publication, RenewEconomy.

One hopes that Dubai's marvellous example of aiming to generate 75 percent of its power from clean energy by 2050, will inspire Ghanaian politicians, entrepreneurs and member-companies of the Association of Ghana Industries.

Dubai:
The largest Concentrated Solar Power (CPS) project to be built on a
single site in the world will begin power generation in Dubai within the
next five years, officials announced on Thursday.
The long view is that the new CPS site will generate 1,000 megawatts
(MW) of power by 2030 as part of the Dubai Clean Energy Strategy to
generate 75 per cent of Dubai’s power from clean energy by 2050.

Concentrated solar power is generated by circular rings of solar
mirrors called heliostats that direct sunlight into a central collection
tower where the sun’s rays power a steam turbine to generate
electricity.

The project will surpass the existing world’s largest CPS tower in
Morocco that has a power generating capacity of 150MW, senior energy
officials said.

Saeed Mohammad Al Tayer, managing director and CEO of Dubai
Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa), announced the project at a press
conference at Burj Khalifa, pledging a cleaner, self-sufficient future
for Dubai through renewable energy.

The new CPS project,
Al Tayer said, will deliver inexpensive power at less than 8 US cents
per kilowatt-hour as it is generated from the site to be located at the
existing Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Solar Park.

The solar project and solar park when completed is expected to slash
carbon emissions in Dubai by more than 6.5 million tonnes of CO2,
helping Dubai and the UAE meets its commitment to the Paris Agreement to
keep global warming temperature increases below 2°C.

Al Tayer said that Dewa had issued a call for tenders inviting
international solar consultants to submit proposals on the first 200MW
phase of the project.

He told Gulf News in an interview after the announcement
that the benefit of using concentrated solar power was that it could be
stored for eight to 12 hours after generation, to help power the emirate
through the night.

The first phase of the new CPS project should be operational by 2021,
Al Tayer said, and would “contribute to the happiness of society by
making Dubai the city with the lowest carbon footprint in the world by
2050”.

“Today’s announcement of the first CSP project will be followed by
other major projects to diversify Dubai’s energy mix. This will
contribute to achieving the vision or our wise leadship to make Dubai
number one globally, and our vision to become a sustainable, innovative
world-class utility,” Al Tayer told those gathered at the launch.

Hadi Tahboub, vice-president — Programmes Director of Middle East Solar Industry Association, told Gulf News the new project puts Dubai one step closer to becoming the world leader in solar power generation."

Wednesday, 8 June 2016

As a people, is it not possible for our nation to find a sustainable means of bringing down the cost of electricity in Ghana? Yes, we most certainly can, indeed - by leveraging the renewable sector's potential for providing off-grid energy independence and making microgrids possible.

And the beauty of it all, is that we need not reinvent the wheel, to do so, either. We can take advantage of the progress made elsewhere in the global power industry's renewable energy sector. Examples abound in places like the U.S., Australia, Scandinavia and Germany.

In light of that, when one hears the many negative-types amongst our nation's political class, going on and on, about the difficulties plaguing Ghana's power sector, without offering any solutions of their own, to those challenges, it takes a great deal of effort on one's part, not to resort to using derogatory language to describe their uncalled for, shortsighted negativity.

We must never despair about our nation's future. Ghana indeed has a very bright future ahead of it - for the brightest and best of its younger generation are mostly well-educated, dynamic, innovative and hardworking.

Technological advances and innovative entrepreneurs will always ensure that things will invariably improve for all of us eventually. That is why we must have abiding faith in the future of our homeland Ghana - our marvellous but sometimes irritating nation's many challenges notwithstanding.

As our widow's mite contribution to the nation-building effort, and to help raise the morale of our hard-pressed fellow citizens, begining today, this blog will post a series of culled articles from various online publications.

Hopefully, if they read those culled articles, the doom-mongering-blockheads amongst Ghana's political class, will begin to see how off-grid energy independence, made possible by advances in renewable energy storage technologies, could eventually contribute to making electricity affordable for many in Ghana.

Above all, one hopes that the executives of the Association of Ghana Industries, and the leaderships of all Ghana's political parties, will read those culled articles too - and that having read all the culled articles they will be reassured that affordable electricity is an actual possibility in Ghana in the not too distant future.

Incidentally, one hopes that when the time comes, they will all send representatives to the November 7-8 Homer international microgrid conference, to be held in NewYork City, U.S.A., this year

Participating in that all-important conference, will be an eye-opener for all of them - and perhaps inspire them to advocate for renewable energy microgrids across Ghana: as a means of lowering our country's high electricity tariff.

We must focus on renewable energy microgrids - for the benefits they will bring to many local economies across our country: especially in terms of ensuring a sustainable future for Ghana's manufacturing sector and many grassroots rural communities nationwide.

Today's culled piece, is from the online publication, RenewEconomy, and is by Giles Parkinson. It is entitled: "Transgrid's big big push into smaller grid-scale energy storage".

NSW-based
transmission group Transgrid has signaled a major push into smaller,
grid-scale battery storage, saying it is looking at installing a number
of 1MW-sized installations at commercial customers.

Transgrid’s Anthony England says the company is looking to partner
with commercial businesses – hardware chains, supermarkets, data centres
and others – “with room for a container out the back and solar PV on
their roof.

Add caption

The idea is to deliver savings to the commercial businesses, and to
the network itself. The customers will be able to do that by balancing
peak and off-peak demand, and the network by using battery storage to
address network bottlenecks that would otherwise require expensive
infrastructure upgrades.

“We’d like to use storage to address network capacity limits – which
are only hit several times year when things get tight,” England said at
the Australian Energy Storage conference last week.

England suggests that it is only the start of what might be possible – if regulations allow.

“Once we get into this space, we can take learnings from the
installation, the performance and the algorithms … and start to think
how to unlock larger scale applications – not just to address network
capital expenditure and the opportunity to defer that spending, but also
to look at some edge of grid possibilities.”

This means removing towns’ electricity needs away from the network as
“primary supply”. Which is not to say that towns like Broken Hill would
be taken off the grid, but the opportunity for micro-grids clearly
presents itself.

Transgrid is not the only network looking to install battery storage
as a means to defer network spending, and make savings for both the
network operators and consumers.

Ausnet is running trials on “shared solar” and one study has already
concluded that savings are about equal for households and networks.
South Australia is about to launch a major trial in an Adelaide suburb,
to try to measure network savings; and Western Power has numerous
different trials, including the latest to use solar and storage to
deflect planned network spending around the WA suburb of Mandurah.

This incursion “behind the metre” and inside homes and businesses,
however, is causing concern for the retailers, who fear the networks are
treading on their territory.

They are pushing strongly for the regulators to reinforce the “ring
fencing” guidelines and stop the networks from entering that market.

The situation is complicated, and many feel that Australia has the
“wrong” type of vertical integration. While other countries favour
allowing networks to be retailer and vice-versa, and feel this is the
best combination in an energy system moving to decentralized energy,
Australia allows retailers to be generators, but in a system moving away
from centralised energy, this may become a business conflict."

Saturday, 4 June 2016

Not too long ago, Sydney Casely-Hayford, one of the founders of the activist group, #OccupyGhana, was said to have stated that Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom, the leader and founder of the Progressive People's Party (PPP), is the best President Ghana will never have.

Well, Providence will have to make the impossible happen, then, for the sake of our homeland Ghana and all its people - for, at this juncture in our nation's history, Nduom will make a far better leader for our country, than either President Mahama has been, or Nana Addo Danquah Akufo-Addo can ever hope to be.

He towers above both gentlemen, as a job-creator with a stellar track-record, and nurturer of profitable strategic businesses, which are all impacting society positively. Nduom's reaction to the new sugar factory at Komenda, speaks volumes about his suitability as Ghana's next leader.

Whiles others cynically seek to score brownie points, and play politics, with what is an important import-substitution agro-industrial undertaking, Nduom has quietly and without fanfare, bought land to plant sugarcane to supply the new Komenda sugar factory with - and is awaiting information and expert advice about the variety of sugarcane the factory will use for producing sugar, in order to start planting.

Is that not the kind of visionary leadership Ghana needs - and will all Ghanaians not benefit from his leadership qualities if he is elected President? What beats living in a well-administered nation with a well-managed economy - led by a strict disciplinarian who truly has zero-tolerance for corruption and does not worship at the alter of the cult-of-the-mediocre?

And Nduom, of course, has said he will investigate all the regimes that have held power since the 4th Republic came into being - which is just what we need to retrieve all stolen taxpayers' money from the many high-ranking thieves who robbed Ghana blind, and sent their net worth to stratospheric heights, whiles holding important government positions, in the past.

Perhaps the question we must pose is: After nearly 24 years of sharing power between them, since the 4th Republic came into being, are Ghana's middle-classes going to allow the duopoly made up of the ruling National Democratic Congress (NDC), and the largest of the opposition parties, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) - both of which actively sabotage the nation-building effort, when in opposition - to have yet another opportunity to govern our country, and continue ruining Mother Ghana?

If elected to power again, will the NPP too not bring along its own small army of geniuses like the NDC's Bernard Allotey Jacobs, and his ilk, and make square-pegs-in-round-holes appointments, by putting them unto the boards of public entities - instead of appointing the most qualified individuals best suited for those positions regardless of party affiliation: which is what a President Nduom would do?

Why continue supporting the same two political parties that daily pray for our homeland Ghana to retrogress when they find themselves in the political wilderness - and both of which are also beholden to the selfsame vested interests bleeding Mother Ghana dry?

Are they both not purpose-built to exploit our corrupt system by stealth - for which reason they can never publicly publish the sources of all their election campaign funds and state the amounts given by their 'donors'? Is the opaqueness about their campaign finances not the root-cause of high-level corruption in Ghana?

Was President Kufuor not receiving kickbacks at the Osu Castle, then the seat of governmnent - according to the then NPP chairperson, Haruna Esseku? And only heaven knows the sources from which the NDC obtains its election campaign's cash-mountains. Perhaps we must ponder why that despicable mega-scoundrel, Woyome, acts as if he actually deserves the GHc51 million he swindled Ghana out of. No?

For how long will middle-class Ghanaians continue to put up with the NDC/NPP duopoly's hypocrisy? The time has come for our country to be governed by a new leadership that is competent and incorruptible. We must end the Boss Tweed-style pork-barrel machine-politics of the corrupt NDC/NPP duopoly - and go for Singapore-style competent and incorruptible leadersdhip: by voting in Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom as President.

Just why do middle-class Ghanaians think that as we speak, the two parties that make up the NDC/NPP duopoly, have teams of high-powered, smoke-and-mirrors creative-accountants, working feverishly, day and night, to enable them finally present their audited Kweku-Ananse-accounts, to the Electoral Commission of Ghana? And to think that both parties still have the audacity to carry on as if it is their Divine right to take turns to rule Ghana. Hmm, eyeasem o. Asem kesie ebeba debi ankasa.

Furtheremore, is it not also obvious by now to middle-class Ghanaians, that both parties will never commit to publicly publishing the assets of their leading lights, including their candidates for presidential and parliamentary elections, and that of their spouses, before elections - and neither will they ever commit to a policy of such publicly-published asset declarations taking place immediately before the assumption of office of all ministers, and other high-office holders, and immediately after their tenures end?

Yet, that is the best and most effective means of ending high-level corruption by Ghana's ever-greedy vampire-elites, once and for all. So why should Ghanaians entrust either of those corrupt entities with power yet again? Are we so clueless? Will that not doom all of us this time round if we make such a grave error of judgement and vote for one of the presidential candidates of the NDC/NPP duopoly, to lead our country?

Lest we forget, Nduom published his filed tax returns and the sources of funding for his party, before the 2012 presidential and parliamentary elections. That is why his election as President will bring about a sea-change in our nation's politics. We will have transparent and accountable leaders with a moral compass who will serve Mother Ghana faithfully - not scheme to rip her off.

And is it not patently clear to middle-class Ghanaians by now that the NDC/NPP duopoly's neo-liberal economic policies - judging by their disastrous results in the real world - are not helping the majority of ordinary people in our nation, despite their making sacrifice after sacrifice that politicians in power have called upon them to make, for the long-term benefit of their country? Are ordinary Ghanaians still not having to struggle daily to survive?

Both those discredited political parties - two sides of the same debased coin incidentally - have played fast and loose with taxpayers' money when in power in our country.

And to enable them continue with their profligate spending when in power, they have both resorted to piling on tax after tax on individuals and businesses - when the best real world solution to engendering continued economic growth is a low-tax regime.

Such a business-friendly policy can be made sustainable by tackling blatant white-collar super-thievery, eliminating the massive waste in the system, and by ending the rip-off of Mother Ghana by profiteering suppliers of goods and services, to the public-sector.

Sadly, when in power, it never once crosses the minds of policymakers in the NDC/NPP duopoly that the most creative means of widening the tax net, and garnering more tax revenues, is by simply making Ghana the nation with world's lowest corporate tax rate, and abolishing personal income tax.

What sensible businessperson in Ghana would evade taxes widely seen as reasonable and fair - because, set at 5 percent, they would be the world's lowest corporate tax rate? And with the abolition of personal income tax, why won't businesses and entrepreneurs from around the world, too, flock to Ghana? Will they all not pay the corporate tax rate set at just 5 percent?

Even when all forms of tax exemptions and tax holidays are abolished to compensate for lowering corporate tax rates, and abolishing personal income tax, it would still make Ghana one of the most hospitable business environments, anywhere on earth - and investors will be desirous of investing in our national economy.

Only a leader with the business nous and gumption of Nduom, would see the sense in such a move - for he has ample real-world experience that will enable him easily envision how such policies would empower businesses and entrepreneurs across Ghana.

Rather than thinking that the election of Nduom as President is an impossibility, the Sydney Casely-Hayfords must rather start thinking of how patriotic and discerning individuals like themselves, can help to get the blinkers removed from the eyes of middle-class Ghanaians - to enable that key demographic see the imperative need for Ghana to be led by Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom after 7th January, 2017.

The Sydney Casely-Hayfords must also take it upon themselves, to make middle-class Ghanaians understand clearly, why they must elect to voluntarily canvass young people throughout the country, to vote massively for Nduom, in the 7th November presidential election, rather than either of the candidates of the discredited NDC/NPP duopoly.

Nduom's leadership will secure the individual futures of educated young Ghanaians - because he will turn Ghana into a land of opportunity for all those willing to work hard to secure their own individual futures.

Mother Ghana deserves better leadership than the NDC/NPP duopoly has provided our nation thus far. Dr. Paa Kwesi Nduom is definitely the best person to lead Ghana after this November's presidential and parliamentary elections. Middle-class Ghanaians must volunteer to work with him to make that possible. Ghana will get competent, fair and effective leadership with Nduom as President. Definitely.